The popular standard
layout shown in our spec box (the “master grand suite”) sees
the owner’s berth swung around and placed against a screen in front
of the master stateroom doorway, so you can walk around it. The en suite
shower and head sit just forward to port. This layout uses up space on
the port side and relegates the fourth cabin to a small bunk-berth affair
with no facilities. But, for many owners, any inconvenience suffered by
occasional guests is a fair trade-off against the magnificence of their
more frequently used quarters.

Incredibly, Sunseeker
is turning out two 82 Yachts a month, so you don’t have to squint
at plans to compare layouts. You can step aboard two or three other boats
and see them for yourself. While there are pros and cons with each, it’s
good to see that certain excellent features remain common to all spacious
forward guest heads, a roomy and practical saloon with a deceptively large
galley, and a great navigator’s station opposite the helm.

Stepping from boat to
boat also allows you to compare owner’s decor choices. One owner,
whose boat was moored next to my test boat, had gone for brown leather
upholstery in the saloon and black leather helm seats. It’s amazing
how much of a difference it made. Our test boat had a calming, conventional
color scheme composed of cherry paneling, cream-colored leather, and cream-colored
wool carpet. Visual contrast was provided by a few discreet notes of black
leather and black marble worktops in the galley and in the heads. The
overall effect was very pleasing.

Besides flexibility,
a boat of this class must offer quality, and for some years now Sunseeker’s
quality has been beyond reproach. Like other major British yards, its
joinery and interior finishing can rival the best the Italian yards can
offer, and these are complemented by high standards of engineering. Take
the standard hydraulic aft swim platform, which can be lowered well below
the waterline so the tender can be floated onto its chocks. There is,
of course, a safety switch to prevent the engines going into gear with
the platform down, and if you have a hydraulic pump problem, a manual
pump enables you to get the platform up again. If it’s really not
your day and you suffer complete hydraulic failure, you can override the
engine safety switch and at least get yourself home, albeit slowly.

Also unusual on a boat
this size, there’s only one way to the upper deck, from the cockpit.
(It’s one reason why the saloon feels so big. There are no stairs
inside.) The flying bridge has a sunbathing area aft, sensibly arranged
seating, and a bar in the center section, most of which is shaded by a
bimini. The upper helm is also comfortable and well organized, and it
was from here that we carried out our sea trials.

After running all the
numbers in flat water in the lee of Handfast Point’s white chalk
cliffs, not far from the Sunseeker factory in Poole, England, we ventured
farther out, where the breeze picked up, raising a two- to three-foot
chop. Then the fun began. The extreme angle of heel in really tight turns
took some getting used to, but then it became just part of the fun. The
82 was quiet and comfortable at 30 knots and happy to stay on plane down
to 15 or 16, which means relatively economical cruising in a wide variety
of conditions. Small trim tabs proved adequate for correcting heel in
the crosswind and weren’t needed for anything else. Upwind, downwind,
and across seas, the hull couldn’t be faulted. The 82 felt like a
truly capable sea boat as well as an extraordinarily agile driver’s
machine.

The skipper told me
that while taking our boat back from last winter’s London Boat Show,
he was surfing ten-foot waves at 25 knots on autopilot, and she was steady
as a rock. Normally you’d take such claims by an employee with a
grain of salt, but I’ve driven the 82, so it’s totally reasonable
to me.